Grief Stage: Denial. "Denial and shock help us to cope and make survival possible. Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief."

It should be noted that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is one half of a bitter-boxing rivalry with Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, so perhaps there's a bit of projection here. But according to the Kubler-Ross method, this stage is actually about being "left behind." Of course, the Kubler-Ross stages apply to death, but Mayweather's feeling that African American players might be "left behind" in the wake of Lin's hype could be very real.

via Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Again)

Other countries get to support/cheer their athletes and everything is fine. As soon as I support Black American athletes, I get criticized.

Grief Stage: Anger. "There are many other emotions under the anger and you will get to them in time, but anger is the emotion we are most used to managing. The truth is that anger has no limits."

The anger here isn't directly at Lin. To be fair, Mayweather's anger is directed at the Twitter backlash he felt over his previous tweet about Lin's race. At this point, according to Kubler Method, anger and denial have a hard time co-existing--meaning that that Mayweather at least acknowledges that Linsanity is real (even though he had to be convinced of it by the backlash to his comment).

via Michael Che, Comedian and Jason Whitlock, a Fox Sports journalist

@SpikeLee i agree with floyd, but i dont see why thas a bad thing. how many asians weve seen ball like that?

Grief Stage: ​Bargaining:"After a loss, bargaining may take the form of a temporary truce"

Whitlock's tweet came after Lin's 38-point outburst against the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. In a literal sense, his "truce" came in the form of giving into Linsanity with an immature penis-size joke—in order to acknowledge Lin's prowess on the court, he had to neg him elsewhere. Che's tweet signals support for Mayweather's harsh stance, but his truce is that it's an amazing story for Asians (however problematic that view may be).

I get Linsanity. I've cried watching Tiger Woods win a major golf championship. Jeremy Lin, for now, is the Tiger Woods of the NBA. I suspect Lin makes Asian Americans feel the way I feel when I watch Tiger play golf...

The couple-inches-of-pain tweet overshadowed my sincere celebration of Lin’s performance and the irony that the stereotype applies to pot-bellied, overweight male sports writers, too. As the Asian American Journalist Association pointed out, I debased a feel-good sports moment. For that, I’m truly sorry.

According to the stages, depression signals moving into the present. The scolding that the Asian American Journalist's Association laid on Whitlock coupled with the backlash he received might have helped him get into this stage. And guys! He's capable of crying! And perhaps he's a little sad for that terrible penis joke?

via Spike Lee (Lee has been a big Lin supporter from the very beginning)

Floyd Mayweather Sounds Like Rush Limbaugh When He Talks About Jeremy Lin Saying He's Only Getting Attention Because He's Asian.WAKE UP YO.

Grief Stage: Acceptance: "We learn to live with it. It is the new norm with which we must learn to live."

It's probably not fair to put Lee into this stage, since he never experienced grief. But being a long-time Knick supporter, Lee is one of the most visible people out there accepting Linsanity. He's also been one of the most vocal, calling for people to stop the "racial profiling" of Lin. As the Kubler-Ross stages detail, acceptance means "recognizing that this new reality is the permanent reality." A winning streak is definitely a permanent reality that Lee is willing to accept.

An example for the others to follow might be ESPN's Bill Simmons, who once wrote about Kobe Bryant, "I like watching him and arguing about him. I like being bothered and thrilled by him. And I really like when he plays like Michael J. Fox instead of The Wolf."

As Kubler-Ross notes, not all stages are experienced by grievers. Theoretically, the same could apply to Jeremy Lin's detractors, some of which may never get to Spike Lee levels of Lin acceptance. Clearly, Mayweather is not ready to move on.

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